LIFESTYLE

Anna Britten talks to Bristol designer – and reality TV star – Gilly Woo as she prepares to launch her first ready-to-wear collection.

Gill Cockwell’s been the sanest person on BBC One for the last few Tuesday nights. As a participant in the Beeb’s entertaining Shepton Mallet-based ‘Turn Back Time – The High Street’, she’s embroidered hankies, made nightdresses out of valance sheets and drawn crayon up the back of her calves in the name of period chic. All while remaining a beacon of cheerful fortitude as shopkeeping families squabble and weep all around her. Think Molly Ringwald in ‘Pretty In Pink’ – in a bustle.

Though she described her recent televisual time-travelling as a “dream come true – I live in the past anyway!”, she won’t be auditioning for ‘I’m A Celebrity…’ any time soon because of the day job. She’s been making couture dresses in her Bristol workshop for a decade, establishing the label Gilly Woo (her dad’s childhood nickname for her) in 2007. “My client base includes anything from a 16-year-old girl going to a prom and not wanting the same dress as everyone else to an 80-year-old going to her grand-daughter’s wedding. But the typical Gilly Woo woman is probably an independent career woman in her 30s and 40s – very smart and stylish, who likes to be different, appreciates craftsmanship and treasures her clothes.”

Despite a huge client base, and the fact her creations are sported by neighbourhood trendies such as Phantom Limb and Massive Attack vocalist Yolanda Quarty, her reputation so far has been of someone not quite part of the Bristol fashion scene. She accepts this situation with typical good humour: “I’ve always struggled in my relationship with Bristol! It’s weird – it’s where I was born and bred. I love it and I don’t want to live anywhere else – I’ve lived in Spain and Dublin too – but Bristol is definitely not the best place for my business. Bristol people are so cool and urban – they’re almost too cool to dress up. Bristolians need a bit of coercing to get into high-end glamour but once they’re there, they love it. I’m really hoping that Bristol will start loving glamour more and more.”

And well they might when Gill launches her first ready-to-wear collection a few days before Christmas. Now, instead of commissioning an elaborate, wallet-bashing showstopper, local women will be able to buy gorgeous, mix-and-match corsets, skirts, boleros, shrugs, belts and corsages through local boutiques at off-the-peg prices.

“People see me and my clients out in our dresses and say, ‘Oh, I wish….’, but they don’t have the budget. So it’s something I always had in mind, but it takes an awful lot of development and money and time to get it right. The reason it’s taken me this long is because I wanted it to be perfect – to fit all body types and suit different ages and personalities. With the bespoke dresses, there are some styles which keep being repeated time and time again. I wanted to make them more accessible – they’ll be a lot cheaper, about half the price but made to the same couture standards.

“If it takes off in the way I hope, I’ll be spending an awful lot more time designing – in a different way. I’ll be thinking about lots of different occasions for women, so we might do outfits that are good for weddings, Ascot, polo, and in the winter we’ll be thinking about parties and balls. And once a collection is finished, that’ll be it – vintage Gilly Woo.”

For a sneak preview of the ready-to-wear pieces – as well as bubbly, dinner, cabaret, fashion show and more – sashay along to The Gilly Woo Christmas Do on Sun 19 Dec at Metropolis. Tickets range from £15 for the show only to £45 for a single person to £480 for a table of 12 and can be bought at : www.campnonsense.co.uk 

FFI: 0117 924 6656 OR WWW.GILLYWOO.COM
 

Copyright Anna Britten 2010

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